4 Gala or other flavorful apples, peeled, cored and each cut into 8 slices (2 huge Honey Crisp is more than enough and it’ll probably grant you extras for a smaller cake for yourself. I used the 8 slice apple corer and then sliced the apples slices in 1/2 again.)

1/2 to 1 teaspoon Calvados or apple brandy. (I used regular brandy but rum might be good as well)

1 teaspoon freshly grated fresh ginger

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 Tablespoon Turbinado Sugar for the top sprinkling (can be regular sugar as well)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Slice the apples and place in a large bowl.

Mix the ginger, cinnamon, lemon zest and juice, and brandy in a separate small bowl and then place this into the apple slices carefully turning the slices over to get them all coated.

Butter a 9-inch spring form pan, and set aside. (I used parchment paper and put the spring form on a pizza pan which was lined with parchment paper.)

Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the pre-whisked flour and baking powder until thoroughly mixed.

Fold into the mixture a few of the apple slices or bits, and spread the batter evenly in pan. The mixture will be very stiff so spread it around with a rubber spatula.

On the top of the batter, lay the remainder of the apple slices (make sure these are quite thinly sliced) in a concentric pattern. Sprinkle the top with the Turbinado (can be regular sugar or even brown as well) sugar. The cake will rise.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into center of cake dough comes out clean and apples are golden and tender, about 65 minutes.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

More Hints or descriptions:

This is a dense East European kind of cake.

Think about putting apricot jam glaze on top.

I made a lemon sauce to go with it

You can make this a day ahead, but don’t put a bowl over it; just leave it out and place some saran on it.

This is an easy and fairly healthy dish to make when the holidays are here. Actually, it’s good for anytime of the year. You can vary it as to how you think that you want to enjoy it. I personally like less cake so I cut the cake ingredients in half (shown in my picture). There are other options as well. It’s all up to you. I like versatile recipes like that. So, bon appétit and Happy Thanksgiving to one and all.

Step # 1Ingredients for the filling:

12 ounces fresh cranberries, rinsed and picked over for stems if necessary

1 Granny Smith or other good kind of cooking apple you like, cored and diced (I diced mine in the food processor).

4 ounces Sun Dried Cherries (optional)

1 tablespoon of grated orange rind/zest (about 1/2 of 1 large orange)

1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice from that 1 large orange you just used

Orange segments from that 1 orange after you’ve juiced it. I put the segments in with the apple and diced it all together.

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon or some other similar spice that you enjoy

Some ground black pepper if you wish or even some pepper corns

Step #2 Ingredients for the cake (for more cake like, use the amounts I have listed; if you wish more of a topping like effect, as in my picture, use half of the amounts of these ingredients which also means less calories. )

2 eggs at room temperature

1/4 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

1 teaspoon vanilla or any other extract you like or even brandy (I used brandy)

1/4 cup sour cream

1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Step # 3 Topping ingredients for the end result:

Some Turbinado Sugar to lightly sprinkle over all before placing in the oven

Some more cinnamon, whatever also to sprinkle over all before placing in oven

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 325F

Slightly oil or butter a 10-inch glass pie plate.

Step #1: Mix all of the ingredients together in a medium bowl. Let sit while you do Step #2.

Step #2: In another bowl, on medium-high, beat with an electric beater the eggs for 2 minutes. Then, on medium, add the remainder of the ingredients except for the flour and beat until just combined. On low speed, slowly add the flour and salt till well combined.

Step #3: Pour the cranberry mixture into the pie dish. Spread the batter with a spatula over the fruit covering it as completely as you wish. Top with ingredients listed in Step #3.

Bake in oven for about 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean and the fruit is bubbling around the edges.

I served this often to my B&B guests and they loved it. It’s so easy to make and is so much better than store bought syrup to use for pancakes or waffles and you get the apples as well. But don’t stop there, it’s great over ice cream as well.

Ingredients

1/4 cup (or a bit more if you wish) butter

2-3 large tart apples cored and sliced in large segments

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1/2 to 1 cup hot water

1/4 -1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon or another flavor if you wish

Raisins (optional)

Directions

In a large skillet or saucepan, melt butter over medium heat; add apples. Cook, stirring constantly, until apples are almost tender, about 6 to 7 minutes.

Dissolve the cornstarch, brown sugar and cinnamon In hot water in a microwaveable dish. Place in micro for 1 or more minutes.

When apples are just about tender, pour heated liquid into the pan along with the optional raisins if you wish and cook for 2 more minutes.

Hints: I started out with the lesser amounts of the hot water and brown sugar. After micro-heating and placing in pan with apples, you can always add more hot water. If you wish to have more sugar, dissolve the sugar first in hot water and then add to pan. But truthfully, I found that 1/4 C. brown sugar was plenty sweet enough.

Above on your left is the tart decorated for Lois A. 90th B-D. Besides the bought decorations I used some violets from my garden.

The middle picture shows the crust, pierced and ready to go in the oven briefly.

The right picture shows the tart undecorated.

Chocolate Pear Custard Tart

This is truly DELICIOUS. It’s hard to stop eating it. It’s somewhat time intensive to make, but truly worth it. If you don’t decorate it, it looks a little bland so I do suggest placing some little eatable flowers on top or something else to make it look a bit more appealing. I have doubled this recipe and used a 13X9 Pyrex dish; it worked out just fine but I did bake it somewhere between 45 to 60 minutes. Remember, I am in altitude so for your first baking it’s a watch and see mode.

HINT: Poach the pears first; then do the custard; then make your crust; then put the whole deal together and bake; then cool. Told you it’s a bit time intensive but believe me it’s worth it.

Ingredients and hints for the pears:

For the pears that will go on top of the crust please do the following and do this before making the crust:

6 (or more) UNPEELED Bartlet pears, halved, cored and sliced into half-inch slices. The pears can be semi-ripe but not mushy!

Poach 4 of the pears according to my recipe on this blog. Use the method on top of the stove and I did put in currents.

Save the extra 2 sliced unpeeled and un-poached pears for the last topping to go on top of the poached pears before you pour the chocolate custard sauce over all.

Also, what I did was to buy extra pears and I poached them as well. So, when I served the tart, I also served a separate bowl of poached pears for those who are gluten intolerant. Of course I also served my no-churn homemade ice cream. YUM!!!!!

Mix some sugar and cinnamon together to sprinkle on the extra 2 pears you will be placing on top of the poached pears before you pour the chocolate custard sauce over all.

Ingredients for the chocolate custard:

1/3 C. semisweet chocolate chips

2 Tblsp. unsalted butter, melted

1/4 C. plus 2 Tblsp. whole milk

1 Tsp. almond extract

1/2 Tsp. salt

1 egg and 1 egg yolk

3 Tblsp. granulated white sugar

3 Tblsp. all purpose flour

2 Tblsp. unsweetened cocoa powder (I always buy the best for this)

Directions for the custard:

Combine the butter and chocolate in a small saucepan over low hear, stirring until totally melted. Sir in the milk, almond and salt. Set aside.

Combine the egg, yolk, sugar, flour and cocoa powder in the food processor or mixer bowl and process for about 2 minutes. Pour in the milk and chocolate mixture and continue to process until smooth and completely incorporated. Set aside for a bit.

Ingredients for the Crust:

1 package of Walker’s plain shortbread cookies

1 large egg

4 Tblsp. butter, melted and cooled

1/2 C. all purpose flour

1/3 C. granulated white sugar

1 Tsp. almond extract

Directions:

Prepare the crust:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Place shortbread cookies in food processor and process until finely ground.

Add the egg, melted butter, flour, sugar, salt and extract and process again until a soft, buttery dough forms.

Remove dough, roll into a ball, wrap in plastic and chill in frig. for 20 minutes.

Press the chilled dough into a greased 13” by 4” or a 9” round tart pan and score all over with a fork.

Place tart pan on a cookie sheet and blind bake in the oven for 7 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool.

Now you can place the poached pears on top of the crust and after you have done that, place the last 2 sliced unpeeled pears skin side up in a nice pattern. Sprinkle those with a bit of your mixed cinnamon/sugar.

Pour the custard over all.

Bake in your still heated 350 degree oven on the cookie sheet for 25 minutes or till the custard is set, firm and the crust is slightly golden.

Strawberries for an appetizer? Yes indeed and I tell you, this is a really delightfully light and delicious treat to offer your guests for a hot summer day. Best of all, it’s a breeze to make. The only thing I have found that it’s best served when the strawberries are heated so that’s a last minute thing but not necessarily so because you can make the sauce ahead of time, refrigerate it for a day or 2 or even freeze it and then reheat it briefly in the micro (about 1 minute and I put the micro at 1/2 temp just to check that it’s not getting too hot and syrupy).

Ingredients

One box of Melba Snacks Whole Grain Crackers or something similar

6 Tbsp. brown sugar (I use the light brown variety)

1 Tsp. grated lemon zest

2 Tsp. lemon juice

One quick tiny squirt of Balsamic (CAREFUL—not too much)

3 C. cleaned, hulled sliced strawberries (you can also dice them if you prefer)

4-6 Tbsp. mascarpone

A bunch of washed whole mint leaves

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine and whisk well the sugar, zest, juice and balsamic together.

Heat a large Teflon skillet over medium-high heat and add the above mixture. When it begins to bubble (30 seconds to 1 minute) add the strawberries and stir until the juices begin to release their flavor and the berries are heated through (30 seconds to 1 minute more)

3. If you are serving this immediately, I would recommend spreading the mascarpone on the crackers before you have made the sauce and have the crackers all ready on a pretty platter to finish off and serve.

4. After you have placed the sauce on top of the mascarpone, top each with a mint leaf. That will make the whole deal!!!

I and my B&B styled catering service “ From Margot’s Table to Yours” had a wonderful fun time participating in the Sept. 22nd Sun Valley Harvest Festival’s Grand Tasting event. It was made even better by having Donna Anderson from her Lavender Acre’s Farm there to help along with a good artist friend of mine, Susan Snyder. As I had previously promised here is a very lovely lavender inspired recipe that I wanted to share. I had made it to put on my lavender thumb print cookies;however, you don’t need to use this jam just for the cookies because you’ll love having it in crepes, on ice cream and with croissants. It also makes a nice hostess gift.

Ingredients:

8 1/2 Cups Fresh raspberries

3 Cups sugar

2 Tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice

1 1/2 Cups bittersweet chocolate chips

1 Tablespoon fresh culinary lavender buds

6 Sterilized, cool and dry 8 ounce jam jars

Instructions:1. Stir to combine raspberries, sugar and lemon juice in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Turn the heat to medium and let the mixture simmer, slowly stirring, for around 5 minutes. If any foam develops on the surface, skim it off. Remove the saucepan from heat and set aside.
2. Off the heat, stir chocolate and lavender into the raspberry mixture until the chocolate has melted completely. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Cover the bowl with parchment paper and refrigerate it overnight so the flavors can meld.
3. Simmer raspberry mixture in saucepan over medium heat for about 10 minutes, skimming off any foam that forms.

4. Remove from heat, let cool a bit and transfer to your clean jam jars. You can refrigerate without sealing for up to a month or you can place melted paraffin in the jars so as to be able to store for a longer period of time

For easy access and printing of this and past recipes, visit Margot’s blog http://blog.tempinnkeeper.com Call Margot for personal cooking help or hosting

@ 721-3551.

Margot is a self-taught enthusiastic & passionate cook. Having been an inn-keeper for 5 years at her own inn, she accumulated a lot of good recipes which she loves to share.

Here’s another WICKED recipe. I have received a lot of comments and compliments on my other fast, easy and yummy no-churn ice cream recipe so I thought I’d give you all another recipe which I also like a lot. I think that it turns out a bit softer than the other one. It’s excellent served in a pretty glass layered with fresh fruit and this ice cream.

If you wish to make the lavender version, beat everything before adding the simple syrup. When your mixture is thick and creamy in step 3, beat in the simple syrup in several additions.

Gently fold in the fruit or fruit pieces.

Cover and place in freezer until almost set (3-4 hours)

Take, out and beat once more. Put in airtight containers in the freezer overnight.

Lavender Simple Syrup Recipe (Makes 2 Cups):

Ingredients:

2 C. water

1 ½ C. superfine sugar

2 Tblsp. dried culinary lavender buds

Instructions:

In a small saucepan, bring the water, sugar and lavender to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and then cover with a lid. Let this mixture steep for at least 1/2 hour however, I let it steep overnight for best results.

Strain the syrup into a jar or bottle. It will keep for a week or two in the fridge during which you can add it to iced tea, hot tea, hard liquor concoctions (basil flavored vodka works fabulously well), champagne, or lemonade (look for my separate recipe for that under Lavender Lemonade). I’ve heard that it will keep better if you introduce some vodka in the syrup.

For easy access and printing of this and past recipes, visit Margot’s blog http://blog.tempinnkeeper.com Call Margot for personal cooking help or hosting

@ 721-3551.

Margot is a self-taught enthusiastic & passionate cook. Having been an inn-keeper for 5 years at her own inn, she accumulated a lot of good recipes which she loves to share.